Canada\u2019s juniors play Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Wednesday in the game to decide 15th place in the 2014 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup. It is a game where the Canadian batting will demonstrate increased confidence from the tournament experiences that have seen four batsmen break 50 against the junior teams of ICC Full Member countries. Eight of nine bowlers used by Canada have taken wickets, one has picked up five wickets while three have each captured three wickets. Canada played in one of two groups where there were junior teams from three ICC Full Member countries. Clearly Afghanistan, who played in the other group with three full members, have lead the lesser ranked classes of ICC members by advancing to the last eight, but Canada\u2019s net run rate in Group matches was the next best effort by a non-Full member country.
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\nHopefully conditions on Wednesday will not be such that whoever bats first is likely to struggle for the first hour or so. If Canada wins the toss and bats first the top four in the order will likely be players with at least one score of 50 or more. Sudeepta Aurka scored 69 against South Africa, Yug Rao just made 66 against Namibia, captain Nitish Kumar made 53 against South Africa and 50 against the West Indies, while Nikhil Dutta made 62 against the West Indies and 56 against Zimbabwe. <\/p>\n
Nitish Kumar made 38 in his previous U19 World Cup appearance against Papua New Guinea in early 2010. This game will, presumably, be the end of his junior international career, so fifty or a century would be a good way to go out, especially if linked to a Canadian win. <\/p>\n
Nikhil Dutta and Kumar are both averaging in the 30’s with the bat. Dutta is on around 37, and Kumar on 32.6. The potential for improving strike-rate as well as run scoring may come against PNG. <\/p>\n
Talha Shaikh made 45 against the West Indies in the middle order, and Armaan Kapoor is likely to want to improve on his tournament best score, to date, of 28 made against Zimbabwe. <\/p>\n
If the top and middle order batting functions well against Papua New Guinea, then the likes of Trevor Manoosingh (top score 30) and Keenen Tinto (top score 23) might not get much of a chance with the bat. Although they may have a chance to hit a few boundaries to add cream to a solid total in the closing overs. <\/p>\n
Nikhil Dutta leads the wicket takers with five, followed by Nitish Kumar, Talha Shaikh and Keenen Tinto who each have three wickets. A good opening bowling effort from Tinto and young Abraash Khan could also build the path for a Canadian victory. <\/p>\n
Canada had to rely on indoor preparations before a couple of days of acclimatization and a couple of warm-up games in the UAE. All of Canada\u2019s opponents are basically “in-season” for cricket, some with year round outdoor playing capabilities. Funding helps the likes of England, a northern hemsiphere full member country, prepare for these events by playing overseas. <\/p>\n
So it is surely time for Canada to close this tournament with a win that would bring a reward for players and coaches from all the indoor preparatory efforts of the off-season. A win that would also reflect well on those who supplied the indoor facilities where the young Canadians prepared for the tournament. <\/p>\n
It would also be good for the younger members of the squad who are likely to be the torch-bearers for Canada in the next campaign to reach an ICC U19 Cricket World Cup.
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\nEddie Norfolk <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canada\u2019s juniors play Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Wednesday in the game to decide 15th place in the 2014 ICC U19 Cricket World Cup. It is a game where the Canadian batting will demonstrate increased confidence from the tournament experiences that have seen four batsmen break 50 against the junior teams of ICC Full Member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5834"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5835,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5834\/revisions\/5835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}